The high-quality hearing screening practices that you are providing to children in your program deserve to be put in the spotlight! In fact, periodic Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) hearing screening for infants and toddlers is a great service that most children in the broader community do not receive during the critical, language-learning, preschool years.

We therefore invite you to use our new Spread the Word tools to let your own community and other professionals know about the unique contribution that your OAE screening program represents.

Our November newsletter highlighted an easy way to send a simple e-mail to colleagues telling them about OAE screening. This month, we encourage you to:

Use a template we have created to send a Press Release [DOC] to local media highlighting your program efforts.

Look for opportunities to make presentations to groups. To get on a conference agenda, edit and submit the Presentation Proposal [DOC]. Use the Presentation Outline [PDF] (describing resources on our website, such as handouts that can be printed and video that can be played or embedded in your own PowerPoint presentation) to customize the information for your audience.

Taking these steps is a way to recognize and give credit to individuals or collaborating organizations that have helped you develop your program. It can also serve the purpose of attracting additional support by increasing the visibility of the exceptional services you provide.

On December 1st, we offered a 30-minute 'Mini-Webinar' on this topic. If you didn't get a chance to participate, go to www.KidsHearing.org/SpreadtheWord to watch a recorded version and get more ideas on how to shine the light on your program's hearing screening activities!

If you have success using these 'Spread the Word' tools --let us know! If you send out a press release that results in a newspaper, radio, or television spot featuring your program, or if you make a presentation at a meeting or conference, we'd like to reward you with some screening toys! Please send a copy of the article, link to a newspaper story, or your place on a meeting or conference agenda to: